#nigeriangovernment — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #nigeriangovernment, aggregated by home.social.
-
Anarchism in judicial robes, by Owei Lakemfa
My mind raced back to British jurist, Lord Denning who famously declared in 1964: “Justice has no place in darkness or secrecy. When a judge sits on a case, he himself is on trial… If he is suspicious, biased, or unfair, then the judge is the one who is condemned in the eyes of public opinion.” But these words of wisdom seem not to have any meaning to Justice Lifu, shockingly, a former lecturer of Public and International Law, University of Ibadan. For me, what was more distressing was that despite the uproar, Justice Lifu seemed oblivious of the damage he had done to the body polity, the judiciary and his thirty five years post-call to bar history.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/26/anarchism-in-judicial-robes-by-owei-lakemfa/
-
When Laws Become Optional: Suspicious Deaths, Colonial Legacies, and the Dignity Deficit in Nigeria by Lawson Akhigbe
The difference between the United Kingdom and Nigeria is not primarily in the letter of the law. It is in the general application and consistent enforcement of that law. This divergence reveals a deeper reality about how the Nigerian state relates to its citizens. -
Who is funding Remi Tinubu’s donations? By Baba Martins
When Senator Oluremi Tinubu mounted the altar during the inter-denominational church service at the National Christian Centre in Abuja on the eve of the inauguration of the then president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu and gracefully announced that she would be one of the oldest first ladies in Nigeria, not many knew she would also go down in history as one of the most influential wives of presidents.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/23/who-is-funding-remi-tinubus-donations-by-baba-martins/
-
The Tragedy of Victory Reviewers: Alfred Ilenre
The Tragedy of Victory is a book written by Brigadier General Alabi Isama, providing the inside knowledge and information about the separatist war in Nigeria from 1967- 1970https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/23/the-tragedy-of-victory-reviewers-alfred-ilenre/
-
The Great Silence at JAMB’s Send-Off: When Snakes Swallow Millions and the Press Swallows Its Tongue by Lawson Akhigbe
At the recent television and press send-off for the immediate past Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, this ritual reached a high art. The man who spent a decade at the helm was rightly credited with making JAMB more technology-driven, more orderly, and less of a cash-and-carry bazaar than the one he inherited. Fair enough. Reforms happened. Remittances improved. The board stopped resembling a particularly leaky colander. One can acknowledge progress without descending into hagiography. -
The Decentralized Rifle: Can Nigeria Survive State Policing? By Lawson Akhigbe
We are told this is the silver bullet for our security paralysis. But as Nigeria stands on the precipice of altering Section 9 and dismantling Item 45 of the Exclusive Legislative List, we must ask: Are we solving a modern security crisis, or are we reawakening old ghosts that once broke the back of our democracy? -
The Alibi of Antiquity: Tinubu, Hunger, and the Diplomacy of Shrugging by Lawson Akhigbe
Nobody disputes the premise. Hunger did, in fact, predate Bola Tinubu, in the same sense that gravity predated Isaac Newton. The trouble is what the premise is being asked to do. It is not offered as background. It is offered as an alibi, the rhetorical equivalent of a defendant telling the court that crime existed before he was born, and therefore he cannot reasonably be expected to account for the burglary. The doctrine of necessity has been stretched to cover many things in Nigerian constitutional history; this may be the first time it has been invoked to cover a grocery bill. -
From Oba Drama to British Real Estate
For the next century Lagos was the prize: capital of the Colony and Protectorate, then of independent Nigeria until Abuja stole the crown in 1991. Herbert Macaulay turned it into the cradle of Nigerian nationalism. The Action Group under Awolowo made it the Western Region’s intellectual and political headquarters. Meanwhile the federal government and the regions fought over whether Lagos belonged to the West or to everyone. Spoiler: everyone wanted a piece of the port, the money, and the prestige.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/20/from-oba-drama-to-british-real-estate/
-
The Art of the Unsolicited Ass-Kiss: Understanding Nigeria’s “Eye Service” Economy by Lawson Akhigbe
In the United States, corporate culture has a colorful vocabulary for the hyper-sycophant: the brown-noser, the bootlicker, the corporate shill. But in Nigeria, this behavior isn't just a personality trait of that one annoying guy in middle management. It is a highly sophisticated, deeply institutionalized standard operating procedure known colloquially as "Eye Service." -
Core Mechanisms: How Climate Change Affects Security
Climate impacts disrupt fundamental human needs and systems, generating indirect pathways to insecurity:https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/17/core-mechanisms-how-climate-change-affects-security/
-
MC Oluomo’s Legacy
MC Oluomo, born Musiliu Ayinde Akinsanya on March 14, 1975, in Oshodi, Lagos, embodies a classic rags-to-riches narrative intertwined with the raw mechanics of street power, union politics, and partisan loyalty in Nigeria. His legacy is polarizing: celebrated by supporters as a self-made leader, philanthropist, and champion of transport workers, yet criticized by opponents as a symbol of thuggery, electoral intimidation, and impunity. -
Tinubu’s Lagos Governance Tactics (1999–2007): The Laboratory for the “Lagos Model” by Lawson Akhigbe
These tactics blended fiscal innovation, technocratic recruitment, institutional reform, political networking, and strategic confrontation with the federal government. They created the so-called “Lagos Model”, a proof-of-concept for sub-national self-sufficiency that influenced his successors (Fashola, Ambode, Sanwo-Olu) and later his national approach. -
Black Holes in the Public Purse by Lawson Akhigbe
This is not an isolated comedy of errors. It is a textbook illustration of the black holes deliberately engineered into Nigeria’s public finance architecture opaque pockets that swallow money, evade legislative eyes, and render executives unaccountable. The Bodija tranche is merely one shiny pebble in a vast, dark galaxy of special interventions, contingency advances, service-wide votes, ecological funds, security “emergency” deductions, and other discretionary vehicles that allow the executive to move (or park) billions with minimal sunlight.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/10/black-holes-in-the-public-purse-by-lawson-akhigbe/
-
Abacha-Era Corruption: A Deep Dive into Nigeria’s Most Notorious Kleptocracy (1993–1998) by Lawson Akhigbe
This was enabled by authoritarian control: no independent legislature or judiciary, weak oversight, and a patronage network treating public coffers as extensions of personal or regime power. International complicity—lax due diligence by banks—facilitated laundering through U.S. institutions and bond deals. -
Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (Oputa Panel)
The Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, popularly known as the Oputa Panel, remains one of the most significant yet controversial attempts at transitional justice in Nigeria's history.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/06/human-rights-violations-investigation-commission-oputa-panel/
-
Pius Okigbo Panel Report 2: The Sequel Nobody Asked For By Lawson Akhigbe
There are two kinds of students in life. The first studies history in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past. The second studies history carefully, identifies where the money was hidden, and repeats the exercise with greater efficiency. -
EFCC and the Art of Freezing State Treasuries: When Federal Overreach Meets Federalism by Lawson Akhigbe
Nigeria is a federation. Federal agencies do not get to shut down state governments because they suspect something may have gone wrong with the books. Trail the money into private hands. Do not turn off the treasury. The courts, the governors’ forum and the plain language of the Constitution have already said as much. The only question left is how many more times the lesson must be repeated. -
Uwais Report: The Blueprint We Keep Ignoring by Lawson Akhigbe
There is a clean, structural reason Nigerian election season feels less like a celebration of democracy and more like a high-stakes tactical thriller. We built an election system where the referee is hired by one of the teams, trained by one of the teams, and paid out of a purse controlled by one of the teams. -
The Graveyard of Ideas: Why Nigeria’s Un-Gazetted Reports Carry Our Future by Lawson Akhigbe
There is a specific, quiet corner in Abuja where Nigeria’s most brilliant ideas go to die. It isn’t marked by a monument, but by dust. It is the graveyard of panels, commissions, and committees a place where billions of Naira and thousands of hours of expert labor are neatly bound into volumes, submitted in front of flashing cameras, and promptly forgotten. -
Nigeria’s “Poorest General” and the Cost of Elite Corruption
In 1993, during the dark days following the military takeover that brought Sani Abacha to power, one Nigerian Army officer took an unusual step. Instead of consolidating his position within the new regime, he walked away.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/03/nigerias-poorest-general-and-the-cost-of-elite-corruption/
-
Accountability Is Not a Presidential Favour by Lawson Akhigbe
The response by the President's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Cardinal John Onaiyekan's television interview reveals a troubling misunderstanding of constitutional democracy. It also exposes a growing tendency within this administration to confuse criticism with disloyalty and accountability with discourtesy.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/02/accountability-is-not-a-presidential-favour-by-lawson-akhigbe/
-
The Eternal Quartermaster By Lawson Akhigbe
Nigeria's army has been described as mighty on paper many of its soldiers 'ghosts' who exist only on the payroll, much of its equipment stolen and sold to insurgents."The Economist, October 2021https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/08/01/the-eternal-quartermaster-by-lawson-akhigbe/
-
FEC (Federal Executive Council) Approval Process in Nigeria: Overview and Key Details
FEC approvals typically involve Executive Council Memoranda (ECMs) submitted by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Here’s the structured workflow: -
The Rise And Reign Of The Godfather: Bola Ahmed Tinubu By Lawson Akhigbe
The Rise And Reign Of The Godfather — Bola Ahmed Tinubu -
Who Holds the Purse? Or Has Parliament Lost the Wallet? By Lawson Akhigbe
The newspapers report it. Television analysts nod approvingly. Social media applauds. Everyone moves on. -
The Samson Strategy: How the Tinubu Government Pulled the Temple Down on Itself Over PFIPC by Lawson Akhigbe
The Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration appears to have forgotten that rule in its handling of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) controversy. In its determination to destroy the credibility of one man, Prince Adeniyi Matthew Adeyemi, it may have inflicted collateral damage on something far more valuable: the credibility of official government documentation itself. -
We went to Northwest Nigeria. We interviewed a Gang of Bandits. We left with more questions than answers by Eromo Egbejule
In the southern forests, priests and priestesses of the goddesses in the rivers that run through them, are known to demand bottles of Fanta to open consultations or before any water infrastructure project commences. In the northern forests, gangs of bandits - usually ethnic Fulani - who use them as operational bases, crave bottles of Fanta as well.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/07/28/we-interviewed-a-gang-of-bandits-by-eromo-egbejule/
-
Bola Ahmed Tinubu: The Most Nigerian of Nigerian Presidents? By Lawson Akhigbe
In that sense, Tinubu may be regarded as the most “Nigerian” of Nigerian presidents—not necessarily as a compliment, but because he appears to encapsulate many of the contradictions, ambiguities and controversies that have long defined Nigerian politics. -
Rolls-Royce Sermons from the Glass House by Lawson Akhigbe
The First Lady’s remarks therefore landed less like moral guidance and more like a billionaire nutritionist advising a famine victim to eat sensibly.https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/07/26/rolls-royce-sermons-from-the-glass-house-by-lawson-akhigbe/
-
The Presidential Echo Chamber: From Buhari’s Attack Dogs to Tinubu’s Spin Doctors By Lawson Akhigbe
Daniel Bwala One of the easiest ways to understand a President is not to listen to his speeches. Listen to his spokesmen. A President’s spokesman is like a family portrait hanging in the living room. It may not be the President himself, but it tells you everything about the owner of the house. Spokesmen do not accidentally become spokesmen. They are selected, promoted, protected and retained. They are trusted with the most valuable commodity in politics: the President’s voice. That […]